Friday, December 14, 2007

Changes. There are changes on the horizon for Catdomealumni.com. I’m going to “upgrade” a few things about the site but it won’t be anything like Johnniefootball.com. I don’t have the cheddar laying around each month to maintain a site of that style. However, we’re going to pull the skin back and give our mothership a face lift. I plan on incorporating a flash player for the videos and leaving YouTube behind (I hope!) and there will be some other tweaks that I hope will encourage the site to be more interactive and easier on the eyes.

Like the previous two years March will be the kickoff of our Video season. Along with the 2007 season highlights we’ll have Linfield Legends month (already selected), Big Hit III, 1984 playoff highlights, a revision of the 2005 Linfield vs Whitewater tilt, and much more.

I’d also like to bring back the Red and Purple Interview but found that it was just too much to handle during football season. Believe it or not, I do have a life outside of following the program. I’ll be tracking down some subjects during the New Year and see if we can bring some hard hitting journalism to the Catdomeosphere.

I’m also excited to roll out a sister site to Catdomealumni.com. I’m not going to say what it is right now but I’ve been working with another Linfield program in building them a fan site. We should have some fun video content for this new site and I should have that rolled out in early January.

If anybody has any suggestions or ideas to improve Catdomealumni.com please feel free to post them up.

On The Eve of the Stagg Bowl.

It’s the eve of the 2007 Stagg Bowl and we have for the 3rd time in a row have a match up of the Death Star of Division 3 football the Mount Union Purple Raiders as they again lock up with the Warhawks of Wisconsin-Whitewater. I really hesitate to throw out the “Buffalo Bills” or “Rowan” tag out there if Whitewater doesn’t get it done this time but seriously how many times do you get handled in the Stagg Bowl by Mount Union before you just throw up the white flag?

I’m not going to spend much time breaking down this game because the bible of D3 has all hit every angle this past week. Bottom line is the Warhawks have the players to get it done but I honestly think by the end of it the game it's going to be all Purple Raiders due to their run defense and a more balanced offense. Phone it in: Mount by 17.

Monday, December 3, 2007

The only thing left for me to do for the 2007 highlight DVD is to drop off the video files to the Linfield coaching staff to distribute to the players and to use on the recruiting trails. Not to put myself over too much but I’m incredibly proud of this year's highlight film. Last year's 2006 version is special to me because it was the first season highlight film I put together but it was really a starting point in terms of experience for me. This season I didn’t have the hindering learning hurdles to worry about such as the very basics of the editing software and I was able to be much more creative this time around.

There are four sections to the highlight film this season and they include the main highlight film, the senior tribute, the blooper reel, and the extra footage is of the 2007 scoreboard opening clip. Grand total there is about 60 minutes of original Linfield football action for the players, coaches, families, and soon enough our catdomealumni.com viewers to enjoy.

One of the year’s the biggest changes was to the music. For years Linfield has been using a steady diet of AC/DC and other hard rock classics with a dash of more current tracks. I love this type of music but I really think the players have a different taste and desire to have tracks that speak more towards their generation so I scrapped everything we’ve used before and went with groups like Rise Against, Drowning Pool, Clutch, TI, The Classic Crime, etc. The biggest test to me if this music really worked is if it still sounds right 5-8 years from now.

As for Catdomealumni.com I made the decision to post up all 9 games this upcoming video season. I know 3 of those games were loses but I think it’s good to share the great efforts even in the defeat so when April rolls around we’ll lay out 10 total tracks from the 2007 highlight reel (opening + 9 season games)

I don’t think I can explain how much time and effort it takes to put one of these projects together when you are just volunteering your time and I do need to give big thanks to a core group of people for helping me out in a giant way this season. First and foremost, props need to go to Mrs. 11. She was my Jerry Bruckheimer and test viewing group with just about every clip. She was incredibly patient and supportive with all the hours it takes to pull clips and editing the whole enchilada. The next big thanks go to Jerry Hanley. Jerry is the uncle of Senior Drew Ragan and a professional videographer. Jerry provided beautiful shots and footage during the HSU, UPS, Whitworth, and L&C game. This is my second year working with Jerry and it was a great experience. Third is David Cunningham w/ his student aides and SID Kelly Bird. David runs the video board during the games and his student aides work the two cams that provide the live action for the Catdome video board. They provided great shots at each of our home contests this season and Kelly Bird was huge in getting me set up with passes and various feedback that was very helpful. Also, thanks to the great Mike Rhodes for his footage at the L&C game. His shot of Lance Nelson's TD catch vs L&C was jaw dropping.

Overall I’m looking forward to sharing with you the final product and some great moments of the 2007 ‘Cats.

Catdome Connections

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Why "ADvantage Catdome"

I’ve had a number of people ask me why the blog is called ADvantage Catdome. So instead of repeating the explanation over and over, I thought I would just lay it out here.

Back in 1986 my father took me to my very first Linfield game, the final regular season game vs. Pacific (Linfield would roll the Boxers on their way to their 3rd NAIA title). I was 10 years old at the time and I can remember seeing these banners the pep squad/students have hung up on the fences around the Catdome. They read “We have the ADvantage”.

I pulled on my dad’s shirt and asked him what that meant. He pointed to the coaches box in the far back of Memorial stadium and said “You see that man there? That’s Coach Rustchman. He’s Linfield’s advantage.”

It wasn't until later that my dad told me Coach Rustchman’s first name was “Ad”. Get it now? Good. Go ‘Cats!